Pep Comics
Entry updated 24 August 2026. Tagged: Comics, Publication.
US Comic (1940-1959). MLJ Magazines/Archie Comics. 136 issues. Artists include Jack Cole, Sam Cooper, Harry Lucey, Irv Novick, Paul Reinman and Lin Streeter; Gil Kane worked on a few strips and Jack Binder on one, whilst Alex Schomburg produced a cover. Script writers include Joe Blair, Jack Cole, Harry Shorten, Manly Wade Wellman and Bill Woolfolk; Otto Binder (see Eando Binder) also wrote one script. Most of Wellman's scripts were apparently identified by textual analysis: "excessive use of passive voice, run on sentences held together by ellipses" [see Grand Comics Database under links below]. Initially 68 pages, by #65 down to 52; 5-10 strips per issue, plus a short text story, with (particularly in the Archie-dominated issues) short pieces as filler.
Pep Comics is best known for introducing teenager Archibald "Archie" Andrews to the world in 1941 (#22), whose success is reflected in the publisher, MLJ Magazines Inc, changing their name to Archie Comic Publications in 1946. The comic itself, which at first largely concentrated on adventure strips in various genres, shifted increasingly to Humour, and became entirely so from #71. The last sf strip was The Shield in #65, though Gloomy Gus, the Homeless Ghost lasted until #67. This entry covers #1-#65 (1940-1947), a period notable for the first Superhero death. Early strips tend not be memorable; there is an improvement from the mid-twenties, particularly in The Shield and The Hangman's artwork, which became more dynamic.
#1 introduces some genre series. The first informs us that Joe Higgins' father was killed by foreign spies in World War One, so he vowed to shield the American government and people from harm, not only as an FBI "G-Man extraordinary" but also becoming the superhero The Shield. He made a costume whose design not only reflects the American flag (pre-dating Captain America) but is bullet- and flame-proof, whilst giving him the "speed of a bullet and strength of Hercules". Only the chief of the FBI knows Higgins' secret as he battles foreign agents, the Axis Powers (see World War Two) and criminals. The first story has him concoct a chemical that eats through armour plating. In #11 The Shield gains a sidekick – Dusty "the spectacular boy detective". The stories themselves are only occasionally genre, but #12 has a "brain-numbing helmet" making its wearers obedient; #16 a "robot plane" (that is, pilotless) and The Shield occasionally faces a Supervillain named The Vulture who is green-skinned and has very long, pointed ears. In #29 we get a reworking of his origin story: after losing his Superpowers he tells Dusty they came from the Rays of a machine he built using a formula discovered by his father; the effect has now worn off but, anticlimactically, he restores his powers by simply using the machine again. Monstro "the monster from Mars" appears in #40 and #41, causing consternation but turning out to be friendly, if a little timid and unwisely helping crooks ("What are crooks?"). #50 seemingly has a scientist's Ray Gun that shrinks or enlarges (see Great and Small; Miniaturization) and a Time Machine; all this turns out to have been Dusty's dream, caused by reading sf. In #57 a scientist kills a man to prove his drug can restore the dead to life, but is arrested before he can administer it and is executed. However, his assistant exhumes and restores him to life with the serum; unfortunately, rather than acclaim, he now wants revenge. The tale was reprinted in #65, The Shield's final issue.
The Comet is young Scientist John Dickering, who discovered a gas fifty times lighter than hydrogen: after regular injections he is able to become lighter than air, whilst his eyes emit disintegrating Rays; like the later Cyclops of the X-Men, he wears a retractable visor (made of glass, immune to the beams). He has no qualms about killing murderers, though he back-pedals in #13, claiming "I've never harmed a man intentionally in my life." Early on he is Hypnotized into committing crimes and so is considered an outlaw by the police, despite the efforts of a sympathetic woman journalist. #5 has a machine that emits a beam of darkness; #8 a "Death Ray"; #9 a magnetic ray whose effect on steel causes buildings to collapse. Whilst the careers of most superheroes of this era end – usually without warning – simply by not appearing in the next issue, The Comet actually dies: the first comic superhero to do so – see The Hangman below.
The Queen of Diamonds concerns a Lost World, The Diamond Empire, inhabited by a yellow-skinned people but ruled by a white queen (see Clichés), descendant of a man whose plane crashed in their land – the locals were so impressed by his virtues that they made him king. Now another white man crash-lands, this time in a Rocket; he calls himself "The Rocket", is strong enough to knock out a lion and wishes to woo the queen; for the latter ambition, foiling the plans of the land's original but deposed ruling family proves helpful. From #2 the strip is retitled The Rocket and the Queen of Diamonds and Rocket is now "Sir Rocket" and the captain of the queen's guards. In #3 the rocket ship has been repaired and the couple travel and have adventures – fighting Monsters, brightly coloured batmen, lizardmen and apemen, whilst befriending hawkmen – before returning home to battle a usurper. Then, in #10 his rocket is revealed to be a Spaceship, and Rocket – deciding his work is done – departs; the Queen stows away and the pair have an adventure on a planet with tiny people and giants – the Lilliputians of Jonathan Swift's Gulliver's Travels (1726; rev 1735) are referenced. (Last appearance #12.)
Fu-Chang "international detective" is an "American university-educated Chinaman ... in San Francisco's Chinatown". A direct descendant of Aladdin willed Fu-Chang "a set of magic chessmen ... [that] possess all the Magic powers of Aladdin's lamp": they come to life and have a varied skill set. Fu-Chang usually fights the supernatural, though in #4 Princess Ling Foy "the beautiful sorceress" animates some "warriors of brass", which look like Robots; #5 has a man-eating plant and #9 "dragon-lizard men" (last appearance #11).
Bentley of Scotland Yard is a detective (see Crime and Punishment) who regularly confronts apparently supernatural creatures and monsters, only to reveal they are men in costume; however, #5's monster turns out to be real and an apparently genuine ghostly arm appears in #28. The monster in the title panel of #26's tale is a copy of Edd Cartier's illustration for Cleve Cartmill's "Oscar" in February 1941's Unknown. (Last appearance #41.) The Press Guardian dresses as a superhero in his first appearance and is also referred to as The Falcon, but from #2 merely wears a red mask; The Falcon is not mentioned again. His opponents are mundane until #9, when the villain The Claw creates beast men by injecting animal hormones into men's glands (last appearance #11). #1 also has a one-off Apes as Human humorous strip, where a chimpanzee – returned home after three years in America – takes on a road building contract: graft and corruption abound. When confronted he admits, "I went to America – and became civilized!" (see Satire).
#12 introduces two new characters. Fireball is a fireman trapped in a fire at a chemical company, becoming covered in chemicals and finding he can now control fire; so, for example, bullets melt (last appearance #20). Danny in Wonderland has young Danny reading a book called "The Land of Wonders" and wishing he could visit it: a magical woman overhears and obliges, and he is taken there by a passing tornado. Fantasy adventures are had (last appearance #39). The subsequent strip Marco Loco (#42-#52) is not dissimilar, but centres on a comic Marco Polo-type character's travels. #16 introduces Madam Satan: Satan observes Tyra murder her fiancée's parents. She accidentally dies shortly after; impressed by her evil nature, he sends for her soul, declaring "My new partner, my mate! Madam Satan!" and returns her to Earth to lead men astray. She is often foiled by Brother Sunbeam, a monk on a donkey who's trying to trap her spirit in a bottle. Whether this Madam Satan is the same as the one who appeared in All-Winners Comics #8's Destroyer strip (1943) is unclear, as that had a different publisher. (Last appearance #21.)
Bob Dickering is the brother of John Dickering, The Comet (see above). In #17 John dies saving his brother's life; Bob swears revenge and becomes The Hangman. Though costumed, he has no superpowers. The Hangman casts a shadow of the gallows, warning murderers and would-be-murderers of their fate; he tends to fight criminals or mundane agents of the Axis powers – though #28 introduces a recurring supervillain, Captain Swastika; #35 is a kind of tribute to Edgar Allan Poe's "The Raven" in which a man dresses as a giant raven to avenge his dead wife, Lenore; #43 has man-eating plants; in #46 an optometrist builds a device which can display the last image seen by a dead man's eyes. (Last appearance #47.) Captain Commando and the Boy Soldiers are a costumed superhero without superpowers and four plucky lads from the USA, UK, France and Norway who fight Nazis – though in #47 we open in 2944, in the United States of Europia where an artist finds relics of World War Two and dreams of our heroes (last appearance #56). Superhero Black Hood (see Black Hood) appears in #48-#60 and Gloomy Gus "the homeless ghost" (see Top-Notch Comics) has a short run #59-#67. [SP]
links
- Comic Book Plus (#1-#71)
- Grand Comics Database
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